Month: April 2017

ArabicPod101.com is a site with hundreds of short instructional videos for learners of Arabic. There is material available for all different levels. I have read very positive reviews about this service, and the paid subscription, which gives you access to all the videos and also to accompanying printed material, seems to be a good deal. …

If you’re learner of Arabic, chances are you know the word يشرب yashrab ‘to drink’, even if you’re just a beginner. But there are some facts about this word you might not be aware of. Let’s a explore a bit, but first the basics. The basics about yashrab The present tense form of this verb …

The New Yorker magazine recently published a long article by Peter Hessler, who an American writer and journalist who moved to Egypt in 2011 and learned Arabic over the several years that he remained there. The article, called “Talk like an Egyptian” (though versions have also appeared with other titles) gives insight about quite a …

Part of the magic of Arabic calligraphy is that a skilled calligraphy can stack, intertwine, superimpose, and change the proportions and positions of words so as to obtain a recognizable shape of the sentence or phrase that is written. Here to the right is an example from the Wikipedia page on Islamic calligraphy in which …

In my Arabic 2 courses at UvA Talen we use a book that makes reference to a district in Cairo called الْزَّمالِك (’az-zamaalik). In layman’s transcription, the name of this area is usually written just as Zamalek. Would you like to know more about this place? Zamalek is a posh district entirely on an …

Have you just finished working through the Bite-Size Arabic book and do you want to try to read a very simple text in Arabic? Here’s something: مَنْ هِيَ الآَنِسة «مينوش»؟ Read about me and Miss Minousch in Amsterdam! Who is Miss Minousch? That will be revealed. The file is complete with vocabulary lists and grammar …